Anyone hearing this 1966 album for the first time may well be startled at the unfiltered passion and power of John Lee Hooker in his earlier days; a surprise when comparing Hooker’s later recordings with those made in the 1960s. His unmistakable raw voice has fully matured here, but his incantory style of singing appears markedly finer and more flexible. And then there is the perfect gem of a rhythm group whose sinewy sounds fill the grooves with merciless gravitational force: Barry Galbraith on second guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, William Wells on trombone and David “Panama” Francis on drums.

Given Hooker’s unpredictable timing and piss-poor track record recording with bands, this 1965 one-off session for the jazz label Impulse! would be a recipe for disaster. But with Panama Francis on drums, Milt Hinton on bass, and Barry Galbraith on second guitar, the result is some of the best John Lee Hooker material with a band that you’re likely to come across. The other musicians stay in the pocket, never overplaying or trying to get Hooker to make chord changes he has no intention of making. This record should be played for every artist who records with Hooker nowadays, as it’s a textbook example of how exactly to back the old master. The most surreal moment occurs when William Wells blows some totally cool trombone on Hooker’s version of Berry Gordy’s “Money.” If you run across this one in a pile of 500 other John Lee Hooker CDs, grab it; it’s one of the good ones. ~~ AllMusic Review by Cub Koda